Not as great as predicted, magnitude 6.1 when I looked this morning (15 June) so hardly a Hale-Bopp event. You'll need to get up extremely early to
see this thing, and even when you do you'll need the aid of Binoculars or a Telescope to even see any detail of it.
TIME TO SEE COMET HARTLEY: For backyard stargazers, the next few nights are the best time to see green Comet 103P/Hartley 2 as it
approaches Earth for an 11-million-mile close encounter on Oct. 20th.
Hartley 2's green color comes from the gases that make up its Jupiter-sized atmosphere. Jets spewing from the comet's nucleus contain cyanogen (CN:
a poisonous gas found in many comets) and diatomic carbon (C2). Both substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight in the near-vacuum of space.